Poetry
Judita
Not translated into English
Marko Marulić · 1501
Synopsis
Bethulia is under siege, the city is about to fall, and the elders have set a deadline after which they will open the gates. Judith, a rich and pious widow, adorns herself, leaves the city with her maid and has herself taken to the tent of the Assyrian general commanding the siege. Six cantos tell how a lone woman delivers her people, in a city where the Assyrians have Turkish features and where the heroine wears the dress of the Dalmatian nobles of the author's time.
Context
The author finished this poem on 22 April 1501, when he was already read across Europe for his Latin work, and wrote it on the first line of defence of his city during the war between Venice and the Ottomans. It was printed only twenty years later, in Venice, on 13 August 1521, by Guglielmo da Fontaneto, and went through three editions in the lifetime of the man who had composed it. Six cantos, two thousand one hundred and twenty-six twelve-syllable lines with double rhyme, in the speech of Split, which was his mother tongue. The choice of the common language was aimed at those who could not read Latin books, and he substituted this language for the mixture of Croatian and Church Slavonic used since the ninth century.
Who it is for
Six cantos in Old Croatian, which modern editions make readable. The French translation by Charles Béné makes it possible to read it without going through the original.
Prizes and reception
The first book printed in this language; its author is called the father of letters, and the national institute bears his name.